The Importance Of Sports In Ancient China

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China is located in eastern Asia, and is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Physical activity and sports has been part of the Chinese culture for thousands of years. Some of the sports include wrestling, ice skating, ancient football, and Chinese golf. Sports in ancient China were not only used for healthy lifestyles but for military training as well. In this essay, I am going to define and tell you facts about three sports in ancient China, swordplay, archery and polo. I will also provide you with the Chinese characters for these three sports. Chinese characters are symbols in the Chinese writing system that stand for words or ideas (not letters). This elegant style of writing is called calligraphy. I hope that you enjoy this essay and learn more about sports in ancient China.
Ancient China swordplay is the sport where you take a sword of some kind and hit your opponent’s sword while trying to touch your opponent with the tip of your sword. Swordplay is a type of fencing. Swordplay
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Nobles in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) loved to play polo. Polo in Chinese is Mǎ qiú and in Chinese characters polo is 马球. In ancient China in the game of polo you are split into two teams. The objective of the game is to try to obtain possession of a small white ball and try to shoot it in the goal with a wooden mallet, while riding on a horse. Polo is like soccer but is played on a horse. Of all 19 emperors in the Tang Dynasty, 11 were big fans of the sport polo. Two of them even died in polo accidents. Polo has developed in to an international sport. As Domenico Palumbo, the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club says, “...I think the Chinese are going to be the most influential superpower and polo represents the best passport they can have, wherever they go, they will feel welcome…” This is why polo is important to ancient China. They feel free to go wherever they want to play

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